Gunshot detection system in Delaware comes up blank

Feb. 7, 2014
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A Chicago Police Department surveillance camera mounted on a light pole on the city's South Side. The black spider-like device mounted above the camera is a Smart Sensor Enabled Neural Threat Recogniton and Identification, or SENTRI, system. The microphone system along with the camera can detect the sound of gunshots within a two-block radius, pinpoint where the shot was fired, turn a camera toward the shooter, and place a 911 call to the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications. / CHARLES REX ARBOGAST, AP

by Greg Toppo, USATODAY

by Greg Toppo, USATODAY

High-tech gunshot-detection systems have helped big-city police solve thousands of crimes over the past decade, but in Wilmington, Del., the technology has proved to be an expensive flop, city officials say.

Since police in Delaware's largest city used a $250,000 federal grant to install 18 sound-sensing video cameras in November 2012, the system hasn't fully recorded a single shooting scene, police said this week. In the same period, they've received more than 600 reports of shots fired and say 175 people have been shot in an "unprecedented period of violence," according to The (Wilmington) News Journal, which first reported the findings.

Interim Police Chief Bobby Cummings said the detection system, known as Sensor Enabled Neural Threat Recognition and Identification, or SENTRI, has detected the sound of gunshots only about "five or six times." Only once did cameras turn toward the sound of shots. In that case, he said, foliage prevented the cameras from capturing the scene.

"I don't know that 'success' would be the right word" to describe SENTRI's performance, said police spokesman Mark Ivey. "Real-world conditions have proven that there are limitations to the system."

Wilmington officials are expected to respond to the failure this Monday with an unusual proposal: They want to spend $415,000 to lease a more extensive gunshot-detection system from another manufacturer.

"Nothing beats a failure but a try," said city Councilman Michael A. Brown Sr. "You keep trying until you get it right."

He added, "There is no dollar value to human life."

Police this week said the high-definition cameras were working properly, but that with a range of just 500 feet they may have been too far from gunfire, or that criminals had figured out where they were located and decided to pull the trigger elsewhere.

On its website, Tucson-based SENTRI manufacturer Safety Dynamics says its cameras are in use in a number of cities, including Baltimore, Baton Rouge and Compton, Calif. It also says the system protects the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco. CEO Sally Fernandez did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but she told The News Journal that Wilmington hadn't reported any problems to her. "The units, to the best of our knowledge, were and are operating and performing properly," she said.

Brown, who heads the city's public safety committee, said Wilmington's solicitor had complained to the company when police said the system wasn't working. He suggested that the city try to break its contract with the company - he also arranged for a competing contractor, ShotSpotter, to present its system to city officials. ShotSpotter is on the agenda for Monday's meeting, he said.

"My concern has been to give the men and women in blue in the city of Wilmington all the necessary resources to get the job done," Brown said.

City officials and a local non-profit began installing surveillance cameras as far back as 2001 - with the SENTRI cameras, the city now boasts 91 cameras that record around the clock. Police say the entire network of cameras assisted on 376 arrests in 2013.

About 71,000 people live in Wilmington, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures.

ShotSpotter, a Newark, Calif.-based company, says its cameras are installed in more than 80 places worldwide, including Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The Washington Post, citing a public-records request, reported last November that since 2006, ShotSpotter cameras had recorded 39,000 shooting incidents in Washington, D.C. The number of incidents outnumbered official felony gun crime reports by more than two to one.